Before a death

Palliative care

Organ donation

If you’ve decided donate your organs after death, add your details to the NHS Organ Donor Register, it couldn’t be simpler. Depending on what suits you best, you can contact the register on the the Organ Donation Scotland website.

Leaving your body to medical science

If the body is to be given for medical teaching purposes, the dead person will usually have made arrangements in advance with a Medical School. A written statement of the intention to benefit medical science should therefore be among the dead person’s papers. You should contact the Anatomy Department of the appropriate University Medical School (Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow or St Andrews), and they will advise on the procedures involved. Before a body can be accepted by a Medical School, there are several factors which have to be considered, such as:

place of death;

cause of death;

condition of body at time of death; and

extent of demand in the Medical School.

Bodies are normally refused if there has been a post mortem examination, or if any major organs have been removed. In normal circumstances, the costs of removing the body, and burying or cremating it are normally borne by the Medical School. A body used for teaching purposes will normally be cremated or buried within 3 years at a special memorial service.

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